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Your job will be to read the article and answer the questions given

Reading Log 1
Read the following text and answer the following questions:

I. Pre-reading:
a. What do you know about the chaos theory?
b. What do you think the text will be about?
c. Write a list of five words (minimum) that you think you can find in the text you will read.

Now click on the following link, then check your previous responses. Once you finish, please answer the questions below the picture
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761571605/Chaos_Theory.html


II. Reading:
1. Read the text and check if you can find any of the words you wrote in your list (the one you wrote in the pre-reading, letter c.)
2. Underline all the definitions you find in the text.
3. In the definitions: Mark the term being defined, the general class words and the characteristics of the terms.
4. Find the descriptions if any.
5. Find what the following referents, underlined in the sentences below, refer to in the text. Be careful some items more contain more than one referent:

a. Chaos Theory, theory describing the complex and unpredictable motion or dynamics of systems that are sensitive to their initial conditions
b. Until recently, it was believed that if the dynamics of a system behaved unpredictably, it was due to random external influences
c. “It may happen that small differences in the initial conditions produce very great ones in the final phenomena. A small error in the former will produce an enormous error in the latter. Prediction becomes impossible.…”
d. The ramifications of Poincaré's discovery were not fully appreciated by most scientists until computers allowed them to easily model and visualize chaotic systems.
e. He demonstrated visually that there was structure in his chaotic weather model that, when plotted ...

6. What new aspects did you discover about the chaos theory?
7. Is the chaos theory related to real life aspects? Explain




Reading Log 1
Read the following text and answer the following questions:

I. Pre-reading:

a. What do you know about the chaos theory?
I do not know too much about the chaos theory. I have heard is a theory that pose that every dynamic system tends to be unruly, disordered and unpredictable.

b. What do you think the text will be about?
I think this text will explain the chaos theory, and its consequences- if they are any. Probably in this tex will be also commented the first questions and ideas that lead to formulate this theory.

c. Write a list of five words (minimum) that you think you can find in the text you will read.
I think I will find words such as “disorder”, “systems”, “science”, “unpredictable”, “aplication of the theory”.

Now click on the following link, then check your previous responses. Once you finish, please answer the questions below the picture
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761571605/Chaos_Theory.html

Chaos Theory, theory describing the complex and unpredictable motion or dynamics of systems that are sensitive to their initial conditions. Chaotic systems (systems is also the general class) are mathematically deterministic—that is, they follow precise laws, but their irregular behavior can appear to be random to the casual observer. Chaotic behavior is common in systems as varied as electric circuits, measles outbreaks, lasers, clashing gears, heart rhythms, electrical brain activity, circadian rhythms, fluids, animal populations, and chemical reactions. It is suspected that even economic systems, such as the stock exchange, may be chaotic. The field of chaos is evolving rapidly from a theoretical to an applied science.
The dynamic nature of the universe has led to a great deal of scientific research dedicated to analyzing change. Until recently, it was believed that if the dynamics of a system behaved unpredictably, it was due to random external influences. Therefore, scientists concluded that if random influences could be eliminated, then the behavior of all such deterministic systems could be predicted indefinitely. It is now known that many systems can exhibit long-term unpredictability even in the absence of random influences. Such systems are called chaotic (systems). Even very simple systems, such as a pendulum, exhibit chaos.
The unpredictability of chaotic systems arises due to their sensitivity to their initial conditions, such as their initial position and velocity. Two identical chaotic systems set in motion with slightly different initial conditions can quickly exhibit motions that are quite different. French mathematician Henri Poincaré concluded that he could not prove the solar system to be completely predictable. He was the first to state the defining feature of what later became known as chaos: “It may happen that small differences in the initial conditions produce very great ones in the final phenomena. A small error in the former will produce an enormous error in the latter. Prediction becomes impossible.…”
The ramifications of Poincaré's discovery were not fully appreciated by most scientists until computers allowed them to easily model and visualize chaotic systems. Before then, however, pioneering scientists and engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration used Poincaré's work to send people and satellites into orbit. Edward Lorenz, an American meteorologist, discovered in the early 1960s that a simplified computer model of the weather demonstrated extreme sensitivity to the initial measured state of the weather (see Meteorology). He demonstrated visually that there was structure in his chaotic weather model that, when plotted in three dimensions, fell onto a butterfly-shaped fractal set of points of a type now known as a strange attractor. Lorenz rediscovered chaos and proved that long-range forecasting of the weather was impossible.



II. Reading:
1. Read the text and check if you can find any of the words you wrote in your list (the one you wrote in the pre-reading, letter c.)
I just found two of them, science and systems. I could not find the others, even thought, I find some phrases with similiar singnificance. I did not find “application of th theory” but it says “The field of chaos is evolving rapidly from a theoretical to an applied science”, so is seems to be a practic application of this theory. I did not find “unpredictable” but is says “The unpredictability of chaotic systems arises due to their sensitivity to their initial conditions”, so, chaotic systems are unpredictable.

2. Underline all the definitions you find in the text.
Done, check on the text.

3. In the definitions:
Mark the term being defined, the general class words and the characteristics of the terms.
Done, check on the text.
Term to be defined will be underlined twice.
General class will be in green.
Characteristics will be in orange.
Examples will be in fuchsia.

4. Find the descriptions if any.

I cut and pasted some extracts were I found descriptions. These are underlined.
Chaos Theory, theory describing the complex and unpredictable motion or dynamics of systems that are sensitive to their initial conditions. Chaotic systems (...) follow precise laws, but their irregular behavior can appear to be random to the casual observer. (...) It is suspected that even economic systems, such as the stock exchange, may be chaotic. The field of chaos is evolving rapidly from a theoretical to an applied science.
(...)
It is now known that many systems can exhibit long-term unpredictability even in the absence of random influences. Such systems are called chaotic. (...)

The unpredictability of chaotic systems arises due to their sensitivity to their initial conditions, such as their initial position and velocity. (...) (First ideas about) chaos: “It may happen that small differences in the initial conditions produce very great ones in the final phenomena. A small error in the former will produce an enormous error in the latter. Prediction becomes impossible.…”
(...)
(Someone) demonstrated visually that there was structure in his chaotic weather model that, when plotted in three dimensions, fell onto a butterfly-shaped fractal set of points of a type now known as a strange attractor.

5. Find what the following referents, underlined in the sentences below, refer to in the text. Be careful some items more contain more than one referent:

a. Chaos Theory, theory describing the complex and unpredictable motion or dynamics of systems that are sensitive to their initial conditions
Their initial conditions means the inital conditions of the motion of systems.
That refers to a specific kind of system.

b. Until recently, it was believed that if the dynamics of a system behaved unpredictably, it was due to random external influences
It refers to the unpredictable behavior of a dynamic system.

c. “It may happen that small differences in the initial conditions produce very great ones in the final phenomena. A small error in
the former will produce an enormous error in the latter. Prediction becomes impossible.…”
The former refers to the initial conditions of a system. The latter refers to the final phenomena related to the motion of a system.

d. The ramifications of Poincaré's discovery were not fully appreciated by most scientists until computers allowed
them to easily model and visualize chaotic systems.
Them refers to the scientists that could not appreciated Poincaré’s discovery.

e. He demonstrated visually that there was structure in his chaotic weather model that, when plotted ...
That refers to the structure on an specific chaotic model.

6. What new aspects did you discover about the chaos theory?
Chaos Theory is more interesting than I thought. I understood systems just tend to be disordered, but this teory pose much more that that. It bassically says that, for some systems called chaotics, small differences in the initial conditions of the motion of those systems lead to final results totally different than expected, becoming those unpredictable, depending on the sensibility of the systems to the conditions. Even if it sounds too complicated, solar systems seems to be a chaotic system, and this theory could be also applied to economics systems. Actually, most of the information in the tex was new for me.


7. Is the chaos theory related to real life aspects? Explain.
Yes, it is related to real life aspects, because, as it said in the text, this theory can be applied to economic system, solar system, electric circuits, and it can also be applied to organic and biological systems, because electrical brain activity and circadian rihythm are chaotic systems.